BornCreole,
I am not sure if you are Active Duty or a civilan, nevertheless, I hope you understand this...... As big as the NAVY may be, it is still a very small community, people know one another, lets say your Commanding Officer calls CNRC and asks about your package and then finds out one of the guys on the board use to be his dept head, well then you have mutual respect for one another immediately. Your CO will put a good word in on you, and when it comes time for selection your name is already on their mind and BAM, they see it again, and again, the more times they see your name the better.
The officer world is extremely political. Sometimes it's not what you know , but who you know. Seek out interviews from other designators that you want to be, they may know certain people as well, they may even call for you. As if, I just interviewed the finest NFO to be , you must select him, dam!! then they find out they went to the same college, OCS class, ROTC..etc.... See what I am saying, just like that.
Now to answer your ?'s.... As many as 5 to 15 officers may look at your package and make comments on it, then it will go to the Community Mgr for their selection, then it will go back CNRC for final approval. It is a very complicated process, but well worth it.
Question is, "How bad do you want it?"
Mike